The insular councilor for Historical Heritage, Emilio Fariña, defends the work carried out by the Cabildo to expand the limits of the Historic Complex of the Hotels-Pino del Oro in Santa Cruz, a job without which buildings as significant to the city as the Plaza de Bulls would not have any kind of protection.
Speaking to DIARIO DE AVISOS, Fariña recalled that the Bullring “It is not protected from any point of view, and it is not BIC, nor is it included in the municipal catalogue. So at the moment it does not have protection, the only one it has is provisional, as a result of the fact that the Cabildo has initiated the extension file”.
In spite of everything, Fariña defended that the objective of the Cabildo goes beyond a specific property. “We consider that protection is important, not so much by linking it to complete properties, but rather to the historical values of the whole. Not only our technicians have reached the conclusion that it should be extended, but also the technical report of the Government of the Canary Islands, which endorsed its extension already in the first document. We work in the historical complex, since the City Council of Santa Cruz, in all its powers, can catalog buildings such as the Plaza de Toros, what’s more, it should catalog it”.
Fariña understands that the best example that the expansion file of the Historical Complex The Hotels As far as its limits are concerned, and which has already been submitted to the Government of the Canary Islands, is that the allegation of the Santa Cruz City Council, one of the four that have been presented among the thousand affected, is that it does not enter into discussion those limits but the form.” The Santa Cruz City Council does not discuss the limits of the extension in its allegation, but rather focuses on a question of form, on the procedural moment in which the file has been initiated.
The allegation of the Capital City Council was rejected based, as Fariña explains, “on the legal advice that we asked the General Directorate of Historical Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands on whether we had to wait two years to start the file as Santa Cruz defended, or we could do it Yes, and he proved us right. The file is what is null, not the BIC declaration of the extension, so there is no need to wait”.
The insular councilor for Historical Heritage draws attention to the media noise about a file that “collects exactly the same limits that were approved in 2014, the year in which the Santa Cruz City Council did not present any allegation. What Mr. Díaz Guerra would have to explain is the change in position of the Santa Cruz City Council regarding this matter.”
Project for the bullring
When Fariña was asked at what point the two projects presented by the owners of the Plaza de Toros for its remodeling are and how this file affects them, he explained that, “right now, in relation to the initiatives that may have been presented, as I have already said the square enjoys provisional protection. It is the Heritage technical unit that is working on them and assessing what individuals have presented and how it fits in with the protection mechanisms that are currently affecting the Plaza de Toros”.
Fariña assures that, except for this latest clash with the Santa Cruz City Council, the relationship has been good and fluid. “There has been collaboration for all the projects that the City Council of Cruz has wanted to promote, it has always been a fluid relationship, and we have sat down when there has been a need to resolve any discrepancies. We do not understand the performance of our work without coordinating with other administrations that knock on the door of Historical Heritage”.
